Christmas tree worms evade smothering by a coral-killing sponge in the Red Sea

Keywords

Christmas tree worm

Abstract

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Some sponge species, such as Chalinula milnei (de Laubenfels, 1954) and Terpios hoshinota (Rützler and Muzik,1993), are known to encrust and smother large parts of stony corals, causing serious damage (Bryan 1973 Hoeksemaetal. 2014). Little is known how these e ncrusters affect coral-associated fauna. During a biodiversity survey in the Red Sea near Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, a sponge resemblingC. milnei was found over- growing a massive coral ( Porites lutea Milne Edwards and Haime, 1851) at 6 m depth on the offshore reef Bitlat Nazar(22°18′35′′N, 38°53′11′′E), 8 November 2014 (Fig.1a). In the kill zone, the fringing part of the sponge overtopped the coral,while sand became trapped and accumulated in mucus.